Call Me Crazy........

The day following Easter, I will board a caravan of seven buses and travel for 22 hours to the happiest place on Earth, along with over 300 high school band students and their chaperones. All to see my son play his trumpet in a Disney parade, in the time it will take him to march right by me on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom.

What does chaperoning entail, you may wonder? Well, so far, it's been two excruciatingly long meetings (5 hours total), where I've been read to from the rules/procedures handbook and a deactivated epi pen was passed around for practice. Oh, and $605 out of my pocket. A week from today, I'll be sitting in the band room, while the drug dogs are sniffing 600 pieces of luggage/carryons, 300 instruments, and 300 marching band uniforms. Can't wait!

The main duty of a chaperone is to 1)do a head count of your group after every rest stop, checking under blankets to make sure that the person 'sleeping' is really sleeping and not left at the Hardee's truck stop, 2)be a drug dispenser on the bus ride, because apparently, most high schoolers are on some form of medication, but are not allowed to carry their own drugs on them, and only one nurse is traveling in the caravan, and 3)do head counts every morning and every evening before and after a day at the theme parks. Fortunately, being a chaperone doesn't mean you have to actually walk around with your group at the parks all day. I have one 2 hour stint at a first aid station at Blizzard Beach and then my job is done, as far as parks go.

The rest of the time, I will be spending with Husband and Middle Child, who are flying down to spend the week there. I'll meet up with them in the designated parks each day, and enjoy being the parent of an 'only child' for a few days of vacation time. Did I mention how pissed College Daughter is that her spring break was four weeks ago?? Saved us some money, let me tell you!

Oh, and for all of you who may suggest alcohol to ease the pain, Rule #402 states that chaperones are not permitted to smoke or drink on the trip. So much for my idea of parking myself in fake France at Epcot and enjoying a bottle of vin.